Part 7 (1/2)

I think you could do that alone. It would spoil it if I went. It's such a nice little spontaneous idea of your own, you see. But if we made it a regular family delegation--besides, it will take as much as all me to manage the second. Rosamond is very elegant to-day. Last night's twilight isn't over. And it's funny _we_'ve plans too; _we_'re going to give lessons,--differently; we're going to lead off, for once,--we Holabirds; and I don't know exactly how the music will chime in. It _may_ make things--Holabirdy.”

Rosamond had true perceptions, and she was conscientious. What she said, therefore, when she was told, was,--

”O dear! I suppose it is right! But--just now! Right things do come in so terribly askew, like good old Mr. Isosceles, sidling up the broad aisle of a Sunday! Couldn't you wait awhile, Ruth?”

”And then somebody else would get the chance.”

”There's n.o.body else to be had.”

”n.o.body knows till somebody starts up. They don't know there's _me_ to be had yet.”

”O Ruth! Don't offer to teach grammar, anyhow!”

”I don't know. I might. I shouldn't _teach_ it 'anyhow.'”

Ruth went off, laughing, happy. She knew she had gamed the home-half of her point.

Her heart beat a good deal, though, when she went into Mrs.

Marchbanks's library alone, and sat waiting for the lady to come down.

She would rather have gone to Mrs. Hadden first, who was very kind and old-fas.h.i.+oned, and not so overpoweringly grand. But she had her justification for her attempt from Mrs. Marchbanks's own lips, and she must take up her opportunity as it came to her, following her clew right end first. She meant simply to tell Mrs. Marchbanks how she had happened to think of it.

”Good morning,” said the great lady, graciously, wondering not a little what had brought the child, in this unceremonious early fas.h.i.+on, to ask for her.

”I came,” said Ruth, after she had answered the good morning, ”because I heard what you were so kind as to say last night about liking my playing; and that you had n.o.body just now to teach Lily. I thought, perhaps, you might be willing to try me; for I should like to do it, and I think I could show her all I know; and then I could take lessons myself of Mr. Viertelnote. I've been thinking about it all night.”

Ruth Holabird had a direct little fas.h.i.+on of going straight through whatever crust of outside appearance to that which must respond to what she had at the moment in herself. She had real _self-possession_; because she did not let herself be magnetized into a false consciousness of somebody else's self, and think and speak according to their notions of things, or her reflected notion of what they would think of her. She was different from Rosamond in this; Rosamond could not help _feeling her double_,--Mrs. Grundy's ”idea” of her. That was what Rosamond said herself about it, when Ruth told it all at home.

The response is almost always there to those who go for it; if it is not, there is no use any way.

Mrs. Marchbanks smiled.

”Does Mrs. Holabird know?”

”O yes; she always knows.”

There was a little distance and a touch of business in Mrs.

Marchbanks's manner after this. The child's own impulse had been very frank and amusing; an authorized seeking of employment was somewhat different. Still, she was kind enough; the impression had been made; perhaps Rosamond, with her ”just now” feeling, would have been sensitive to what did not touch Ruth, at the moment, at all.

”But you see, my dear, that _your_ having a pupil could not be quite equal to Mr. Viertelnote's doing the same thing. I mean the one would not quite provide for the other.”

”O no, indeed! I'm in hopes to have two. I mean to go and see Mrs.

Hadden about Reba; and then I might begin first, you know. If I could teach two quarters, I could take one.”

”You have thought it all over. You are quite a little business woman.

Now let us see. I do like your playing, Ruth. I think you have really a charming style. But whether you could _impart_ it,--that is a different capacity.”

”I am pretty good at showing how,” said Ruth. ”I think I could make her understand all I do.”